The 20-year-old mother of three was watching TV with her young kids when two officials from Austin High School arrived at her house one morning last week.

"They asked if I was going to come back to school," Alejandrina Rodriguez recalled.

Rodriguez has passed all her classes but hasn't qualified for a high school diploma because she keeps failing the mandatory state exam in math. Technically, she counts as a dropout.

Leaders of the Houston Independent School District have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to lure students such as Rodriguez back to class - going as far as offering $100 cash gift cards to students who help find their former classmates.

Principals and other staff have made countless phone calls, knocked on doors and posted photos of no-show students in the hallways.

During the second week of school, after Labor Day, HISD listed 10,162 middle and high school students as no-shows or dropouts.

Three weeks later, on Wednesday morning, the number had dropped to 2,266 students, according to district data. Some of the students were enrolled in other schools, while others had moved out of HISD. Still others were at home or at work, dropouts who needed an extra push to return to school.

"Some of them are supporting families," explained Rob Gasparello, principal of Sharpstown High School. "I had a kid who came in (to my office) who could barely keep his eyes open because he worked till 3 in the morning. And he was hungry, so I gave him some yogurt out of my refrigerator."

Students with atypical schedules can take evening and weekend classes via computer at several HISD high schools. Online courses are available during the day for those who need to make up classes they failed.

Austin High officials offered Rodriguez, who needs only to pass the state exam in math, access to an online review course. She doesn't have a computer at home but said she plans to walk to a nearby public library to use one there.

Rodriguez said she intended to get her diploma but was struggling with day care for her kids. Still, she said she'll bring her 3-year-old and 6-month-old to the library with her. Her oldest, 4, is in school.

Luring back students

"I get frustrated," Rodriguez, an aspiring nurse, said of failing the state math test an estimated 10 times. "But I have to try for my kids. I'm ready to start. I'm excited."

"These numbers are unacceptable!" Grier wrote in an email to principals. "What can central office do to help?"

Grier's staff notified principals last week that funding was available to pay employees overtime to track down students.

District officials also touted a new incentive program, offering students $100 gift cards if they help recruit back former classmates. For the recruiters to get the payouts, the recovered students must have re-enrolled by Thursday and must stay in school all semester.

The hope is that the extra expenses pay off. The state reimburses HISD about $5,360 for each student, so dropouts can add up to lost revenue.

But even finding the students can be tough. Phones get disconnected. Families move.

At Madison High School, several employees hit the streets from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to search for students' latest addresses, said assistant principal Tyreece Simpson.

Deadline is Friday

"In some cases we're able to contact a relative," she said. "Sometimes the neighbors will give us a lead."

In many cases, she said, the students are not dropouts but enrolled elsewhere without telling officials at their original school.

The missing students will count as dropouts in official state statistics unless the district finds them quickly. The deadline to turn in data to the Texas Education Agency is Friday.

Grier has upped the pressure on principals to try to improve the district's dropout rate. Last year, HISD's official dropout rate rose to 11.3 percent, with 1,249 students counted as dropouts, according to the state. The rate the prior year was 10.8 percent.

Last Saturday, with the dropout deadline looming and rain pouring down, Austin High School Principal Jorge Arredondo led his staff on another round of home visits. He said they encouraged one student to take her lone remaining class online, suggested her boyfriend try again to pass the state exams and got a cellphone number for another girl.

"We've been calling that number, and she hasn't been picking up," Arredondo said Monday.

Just before he dispatched staff to her fast-food job, she showed up at the school to re-enroll.